About Me

I feel I am able to communicate
well and I have a good grounding
in people skills.......Basically
all humanity is the same!
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The foundation of this blog was cemented by the Assassination of Hrant Dink on 19.01.07. I was listening to Setrak Setrakian’s rendition of Arno Babajanian’s composition, Elegy. So
moved by Hrant’s shortened life by the virtue of speaking his mind that I wrote the poem, ‘Without You’ with Hrant's family in mind. The subject matter of the recognition of the ‘Genocide of the Armenians in 1915,’ is very much at the heart and the minds of Armenian's Internationally.
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I want to say: 'Thank you,'
to Keith for the Creation
and Launch of,
Seta's Armenian.blogspot.com
and Armenag for the sources
of information.
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If you feel it would be appropriate, please include a link to my Blog from your Site. I would like my Blog to be as eclectic as possible and include material from as many and different sources so long as it is relevant to my subject matter.

About My Blog

This well-established Blog is worth visiting on a regular basis for a wealth of information of interest to Armenian nationals and to the Armenian Diaspora world-wide. Although it has a particular role in promoting international recognition of the Genocide, the Blog encompasses much more and includes many articles of general appeal to all those concerned with Armenian affairs. Much of the content is difficult or impossible to find elsewhere and the long list of links provided gives easy access to a plethora of material on social, political, religious, educational and cultural matters, and many news items from around the world.

Sunday, 30 April 2017

Dear E-Newsletter subscriber, please find volume 3, issue 12 of the Armenian Church News of the Diocese via the link below.Some subscribers have reported that they have not been receiving our newsletters - firstly, please check your spam folders as sometimes emailing systems erroneously put emails in there. Also in Gmail accounts, check your "Promotions" tab and transfer the newsletter that may be in there into the "Primary" inbox. If someone still cannot find their newsletters, please forward this email on to them so that they can read these instructions.

On Sunday, 23rd April, Divine liturgy was conducted at St. Yeghiche Armenian Church by His Grace Bishop Hovakim Manukyan. The liturgy was attended by ecumenical guests among them Bishop David Hamid from the Church of England Diocese in Europe.

Armenian Genocide Events Held in London

On Sunday, 23rd April, a Commemorative Evening in memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide took place at the Saint Yeghiche Armenian Church in Kensington, London.

On Monday, 24th April, the Armenian Youth Federation ‘Khanasor' Chapter organised a demonstration at the Turkish Embassy in London in commemoration of 102nd year since the start of the Armenian Genocide.

On April 30th, in St. Yeghiche Church the Primate will bless and consecrate some liturgical objects donated by the faithful.Liturgical objects are the ones used during the Divine Liturgy. All of them, the Chalice, Altar Cross, Holy Myron Dove and even the ordinary looking Holy Water Font used for blessing the water have special symbolic meaning. The material they are made of and images on them are not random, they are blessed in a specific way and can be used and touched by certain people only.

For the past three years the Keghart editorial board was engaged in a project to recruit, train and retain a younger editorial team to take the helm of the website. On three occasions a breakthrough seemed to be close (early 2014, mid-2015 and in October 2016) but for reasons beyond our control these attempts failed. More recently a fourth individual tentatively agreed to take over Keghart’s management but for personal reasons was unable to make a commitment for a start date.

After the remarkable effort of the website’s readers—“Friends of Keghart”--to contribute to the financial security of the outlet, the board redoubled its efforts to meet the challenge of locating a new team. Concurrently, a not-for-profit entity was proposed. The latter’s primary function was to explore and implement measures that would generate revenues so that the new editorial board could concentrate on its mission and not be burdened and distracted by other functions. A legal process was initiated to register the entity. Technical concerns were also addressed. ....Read more >>

Today, at around 09:30, as a result of the ceasefire violation by the Azerbaijani forces, Artsakh Defense Army soldier Mher Felix Arzumanyan (b. 1998) sustained a fatal gunshot wound at one of the military units located in the southern direction of the Artsakh Defense Army.

As the Army reported in a released statement, an investigation is underway to uncover the details of the incident.

NKR Defense Ministry shares the grief of the loss and extends condolences to the family members, relatives and fellow servicemen of the deceased soldier, the statement added.

The Promise is on general release from 28 April.

Have you publicised to many of the people you know?

economist.comHistorical drama “The Promise”: an unflinching depiction of the Armenian genocideDue to geopolitical concerns, Hollywood had hitherto left the subject untouchedProsperoApr 26th 2017by N.E.G. THE road that an idea takes from the screenwriter’s mind to your local multiplex is besieged by obstacles political, financial and practical in nature. The average blockbuster has to contend with budget fights and studio meddling; a film like “The Promise” is even trickier to bring to the screen. A sweeping historical drama about a national tragedy, it is the sort of movie that Hollywood used to love. But for more than a century, writers and studios have turned their faces away from the story. In many ways, the film succeeds simply by exploring an event that others will not.

Taking place in 1915, “The Promise” centres on a passionate love triangle but is set against the genocide perpetrated against Armenians by officials of the Ottoman Empire. Oscar Isaac plays a humble Armenian medical student who tries to escape the massacre and save his family, while falling in love with an American dance instructor (Charlotte Le Bon) thereby earning a rivalry with her journalist boyfriend (Christian Bale). It is a stirring, if somewhat by-the-numbers depiction of heroism and survival in horrifying times, but it will not make the pantheon of great historical films. The love story is shallowly written, and the charismatic performers often wilt under the haunting scenes of systemic violence. Without a meaningful story on which to hang its historical events, the actors are left looking like vehicles for a history lesson.

Perhaps that is what the film-makers intended. “I didn’t know about the Armenian genocide before,” Mr Isaac noted . “I think, unfortunately, a lot of us in this country and in the West and all around the world have been purposefully kept in the dark about it.” Indeed, the most basic facts are in dispute. Turkey claims that 500,000 Armenians died of hunger and disease in the Syrian desert: they were being deported for supporting Russia in the first world war. Armenian survivors and their descendants place the number of dead at 1.5m, observing Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day on April 24th every year. They argue that it was a systematic killing rather than an unfortunate side effect of poorly executed policy.

Today most scholars recognise the massacre as genocide, yet many Turkish officials still do not. Because Turkey is such an important ally to the West, neither has America, Britain or Israel. On the campaign trail in 2008, Barack Obama pledged several times to reverse this policy of obfuscation , but he failed to do so once in office. This week, Donald Trump declined to categorise the events depicted in “The Promise” as genocide (though he was happy to call it “one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century”). America’s cultural machine is doing what its political machine will not.

“The Promise” is not for the squeamish. The slaughter is depicted with stark brutality and inarguable cruelty. Key characters are executed suddenly and without warning. A mother is shot in the head in front of her daughter. The population of an entire town is butchered in the matter of minutes, their bodies piled on top of each other beside a river. The film-makers do not use the word “genocide” until the film’s closing moments, but they do not need to: the actions are unmistakable. In one key scene, Mr Isaac’s character discovers a train full of starving Armenians, a sequence often found in Holocaust films, placing these dreadful events in moral context for the audience.

Indeed, while other genocides have found their way to the screen, politics seems to have prevented “The Promise” from making it through the typical channels. Studios are unlikely to take a chance on an expensive film that might anger government officials and geopolitical allies unless they can guarantee that it will be profitable. The film was instead independently financed by the late Kirk Kerkorian, an American billionaire of Armenian descent, who created a film company—Survival Pictures—with the express purpose of educating the world about the Armenian genocide. He sunk $100m into “The Promise”, casting Mr Bale and Mr Isaac to attract an audience. The choice of Terry George as director was inspired, too: his “Hotel Rwanda” (2004) proved that he is able to handle complex conflicts with nuance and sensitivity.

Still, when the film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2016, it did not set the festival alight. Reviews were middling, and no major distributors were interested. Open Road, a smaller company that had shepherded “Spotlight” to a best picture Oscar, picked it up, decided it wasn’t good enough for awards season, and dumped it in the spring. In its opening weekend it grossed only $4.1m, a historically low amount for a film that cost $100m to make. Insiders speculate that it could gross around $20m worldwide, which by most accounts would make “The Promise” a spectacular failure.

But “The Promise” cannot be judged in purely economic terms, as Kekorian had little interest in making back his investment. Perhaps we should not judge it on purely artistic terms either. “The Promise” doesn’t seek to break ground: it was created in order to shine light on an oft-ignored historical event, and even with mediocre reviews and middling box-office figures it is achieving that aim. One day, if the history of the Armenian genocide is officially re-written, “The Promise” will have played a part.

Cinema goers in Scotland can take particular interest in The Promise , released this Friday. Directed by Terry George (Hotel Rwanda, In the Name of the Father) and starring Christian Bale and Charlotte Le Bon, Hollywood’s latest big-budget epic presents a slice of 20th century history that powerful interests have long fought to suppress: the genocide of 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians between 1915 and 1923.

A century later, the issue still divides the international community. Scotland took a stance in 2013 when MSPs from all parties officially recognised the Ottoman policy of genocide against the empire’s two million-strong Armenian population. Holyrood’s vote put Scotland on the same list as Germany, Canada, Sweden, Poland, Italy, Argentina, Brazil and 21 other countries. Armenian genocide denial is a crime in Switzerland, Slovakia and France. Other devolved and federal bodies who recognise the genocide include Wales, Northern Ireland and 48 individual state legislatures in the USA.

Yet there is an opposite list of governments who still refuse to recognise the extent of Ottoman criminality, and that list includes the UK, the USA and Israel. All three governments cite the same reason: political pressure from Turkey. For post-Brexit UK, Turkey is a ‘priority export market’ for arms sales. US President Barack Obama pledged in 2008, ‘If elected president I will recognise the Armenian genocide,’ but he broke his word, unwilling to upset a key ally. (This week, the Obama administration’s ambassador to the UN Samantha Power publicly apologised for that failure). In Israel, the issue sparks fierce controversy, not least given the clear parallels with the Holocaust, but political expediency wins out.

In Turkey and Azerbaijan, genocide denial remains official policy. Turkish nationalists have spent decades silencing debate so that most Turks are not aware that it occurred. President Erdogan has recalled ambassadors (from France and the Vatican) and heaped scorn on governments that accept the views of the International Association of Genocide Scholars and other historians. By contrast, in neighbouring Armenia, the struggle for wider recognition of the tragedy remains a pillar of foreign policy.

For Hollywood to throw its weight behind the campaign is significant. The Promise offers the Armenian genocide the full Hotel Rwanda, Schindler’s List, and the Killing Fields treatment, but with one key difference: while those films dealt with events that were globally recognised, in this case, the fight is far from over.

The wider campaign is not just conscious of the past, but forward-looking in its aims, which include calling out contemporary genocide and supporting humanitarian work globally. Last Monday, campaign leaders the Aurora Initiative for Humanity announced the finalists for the second annual Aurora Prize for Awakening Humanity , an award whose judges include former Irish president and UN Comissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, actor George Clooney, New York Carnegie Corporation President Vartan Gregorian, and a string of Nobel laureates and international human rights defenders.

The Armenian genocide sparked a mass movement of refugees, and the international response at the time, especially in the USA, gave birth to the modern humanitarian movement, according to the Aurora Initiative. They say that the history teaches us how to respond to the modern refugee crisis.

Frequently overlooked, the story of the Armenian genocide is about to receive much-needed publicity worldwide, thanks to Hollywood’s intervention. It is not just the past but the on-going battle over the legacy of 1915-1923 that is at stake. Armenian genocide recognition is a matter of conscience for some, and of strategic and cynical interests for others.

RFE/RL Report

Czech Parliament Recognizes Armenian GenocideApril 26, 2017

In a move welcomed by Armenia on Wednesday, the lower house of theCzech Republic's parliament has recognized the 1915 mass killings anddeportations of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide.

The Chamber of Deputies cited "the genocide of Armenians and otherethnic and religious minorities in the Ottoman Empire" in a resolutionon crimes against humanity committed during the First and Second WorldWars. It unanimously passed the resolution late on Tuesday, the dayafter worldwide commemorations of the 102nd anniversary of theArmenian genocide.

The main sponsor of the resolution, Social-Democrat Robin Boehnisch,chairs a Czech parliamentary group promoting closer ties withArmenia. A deputy speaker of the Armenian parliament, EduardSharmazanov, telephoned Boehnisch on Wednesday to thank him and hiscolleagues for the measure

Armenian Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian hailed the resolution as a"valuable contribution to the noble task of preventing genocides andother crimes against humanity. In a written statement, Nalbandian alsopraised Czech President Milos Zeman's position on the issue.

Visiting Yerevan in June 2016, Zeman, who has largely ceremonialpowers, said he will urge his country's parliament to "followGermany's example" and recognize the genocide. He spoke just daysafter the German parliament passed an Armenian genocide resolutionthat prompted a furious reaction from Turkey.

The Turkish government did not immediately react to the Czech vote. Ithas strongly condemned the 26 other nations that have also officiallyacknowledged that the First World War-era slaughter of 1.5 Armeniansconstituted genocide.

Hurriyet Daily News, TurkeyApril 27 2017Turkey slams Czech parliament resolution on 1915 Armenian killings Turkey on April 26 condemned a resolution adopted by the lower house of the Czech Republic’s parliament on the 1915 killings of Armenians under Ottoman rule.

“We condemn and reject in the strongest terms the resolution adopted by the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament of the Czech Republic on April 25,” the Foreign Ministry said in a written statement on its website.“We are also disappointed by President [Milos] Zeman’s letter of April 24, 2017 addressed to the Armenian diaspora in his country with regard to the events of 1915, as it includes serious inconsistencies,” it added.

According to the statement, Zeman said in his letter that history should not be interpreted by politicians but instead analyzed and interpreted by historians.

The president therefore “contradicts his own words as he makes political assessments with regard to the events of 1915,” the ministry statement said.

“Our reaction to these political actions that openly contradict historical facts as well as the basic tenets of law has been conveyed to the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Ankara,” the statement added.

The adopted resolution accused the Ottoman Empire of allegedly carrying out “systematic genocide” against Armenians, as well as other Christian minorities.

Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War I as a result of civil strife triggered in part by Armenians siding with invading Russian troops, but contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute genocide. It also says many Muslim Turks perished at that time. armradio.am

armradio.am

Armenian Genocide resolution adopted in Colorado Legislature27 Apr 2017 The Colorado State Legislature adopted a resolution recognizing the 102nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Members of both the House of Representatives and Senate voted unanimously to adopt the resolution at the capitol on Wednesday.

The Armenian genocide killed 1.5 million men, women, and children of Armenian descent from 1915 to 1923.

The resolution states: “We express support for efforts toward constructive and durable relations between the country of Armenia, the homeland for the 22 Armenian people, and its neighbors, based upon acknowledgment of the facts and ongoing consequences of the Armenian genocide, and a fair, just, and comprehensive international resolution of this crime against humanity.”

Members of the Armenians of Colorado organization and the Armenian National Committee of America Western Region (ANCA-WR) attended the adoption.

Armenians of Colorado began with a group of 15 Armenian members around 1980. At least 125 families are involved in the organization today.armradio.am

armradio.amTaner Akcam’s finding to force Turkey to seek new ways of Armenian Genocide denial28 Apr 2017 Turkish historian Taner Akcam has recently uncovered a telegram, which, he says, will force the Turkish government seek new ways of denying the Armenian Genocide.

“Are the Armenians who were deported from there being liquidated? Are the troublesome individuals whom you have reported as having being exiled and expelled being exterminated or merely being sent off and deported? Please report back honestly,” reads the telegram sent from Ezrum by Behaeddin Shakir to Kharberd Governor Sabit Bey.

The document dated July 4th, 1915 consists of two parts – the actual text on top and the coded four-digit Arabic numbers on the bottom.

Taner Akcam, a history professor at Clark University in Massachusetts, says the telegram is important for two reasons. “First, it is written on a paper with the letterhead of the Ottoman Ministry of Interior. Second, separate from the text there is a decoded message on the bottom,” he said in a phone interview with Public Radio of Armenia .

The historian has compared the coding system with that of other documents from Ottoman archives and found matches with 24 documents from the same month. The same words are coded the same way. “So there is no escape for Turkish authorities, there is no way to say these are forgeries. And this is a very crucial document in that sense,” Akcam said.

This telegram is well known in Armenian Genocide research and has been quoted in main indictments in Istanbul military tribunals. This was one of the most important evidences that helped convict Behaeddin Shakir and sentence him to death. However, most of the court materials vanished at the time and Turkey has since been building its policy of denial on the argument that the original documents from postwar military tribunals that convicted the genocide’s planners were nowhere to be found.

Taner Akcam knew the telegram was in a the archive of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem , but in the end found a film taken from the document in a private archive in New York. Thus, two stories need to be recalled to shed light on how the photo of the telegram ended up in the United States.

The Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople was representing Armenians in military tribunals and had access to the court materials. The judge presiding over the tribunals at the time handed the materials over to the Armenian Patriarch. With the Turkish nationalists about to seize the country in 1922 the Patriarch shipped a huge package of documents to Marseille and then to Manchester for safekeeping. The materials finally ended up in Jerusalem.

“Armenian Catholic priest, Krikor Guerguerian went to Jerusalem sometimes towards the end of 1960s. He filmed the materials there and a lot of other Ottoman documents one of which was this document. He had a private archive, which was saved and secured by his nephew,” Taner Akcham said.

Despite the crucial importance of the document, the historian does not believe it will lead to changes in Turkey’s stance on the issue in the short-term perspective.

According to the historian, the telegram is a strong evidence Ankara can hardly argue, but he’s confident that Turkey will find some excuses. He’s also confident that “Turkey will continue its denialist policy, but this will put the government in a very difficult position and will force it seek new ways of denying.”

Towards the end of the interview, Mr. Akcam emphasized one point. “As everybody knows successive Turkish governments would argue all the time that Armenian Genocide should not be politicized, that the Armenian Genocide should be left to historians. And I’m just really doing it. I’m a historian and regardless of the fact whether the Turkish government recognizes the genocide or not, I keep working on this topic, because as scholars, as academicians our job is to teach the young generation about the historic injustices, about mass atrocities in the past so that they are not repeated in the future.”

Taner Akcam believes that “it’s important for Turkey to face its history.” If Turkey faces its history and acknowledges the wrongdoing, it can develop a very good relation with Armenia and develop a democratic society,” he says.

a1plus.am2017 World Press Freedom Index: Armenia yields positions in terms of press freedomApril 26,2017Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has released 2017 World Press Freedom Index where Armenia is ranked 79th among 180 countries – – down by five scores from the previous report published in 2016.

“The print media are diverse and polarized, investigative journalism prospers on the Internet, but pluralism lags behind in the broadcast media. In the crucial transition to digital TV, a future space for critical broadcasters will depend on the impartiality of the frequency bidding process. The Ilur.am news website and the Hraparak newspaper won an important legal victory in October 2015 when the constitutional court issued a ruling upholding the confidentiality of journalists’ sources. But police violence against journalists continues and still goes unpunished. In July 2016, a dozen journalists were injured while covering the use of force to break up a demonstration,” said RSF.

Turkey is ranked 155th (-4), Azerbaijan is placed 162nd (+1), Georgia – 64th, Iran – 165th, Russia – 148th and the US – 43rd in the latest world rankings for press freedom published by the media watchdog.

In terms of intellectual property protection Armenia ranks 84th among 138 surveyed countries. Intellectual property protection is one of the aspects of the global competitiveness rating for 2016-2017, in which Armenia ranks 79th.

The global ranking was presented on Wednesday during a forum called "The Importance of Intellectual Property Protection for the Development of the Armenian Economy: Opportunities and Challenges", which was held in Yerevan and was timed to coincide with the World Intellectual Property Day. It was organized by the US Embassy in Armenia, the American Chamber of Commerce in Armenia (AmCham) and the Armenian Office of Microsoft.

Addressing the forum, the US Vice-Ambassador to Armenia Rafik Mansour said strong mechanisms for protection of intellectual property help convert innovative ideas and original projects to valuable business assets, promoting the prosperity and the fight against counterfeit goods. In his words, it also contributes to creation of many new jobs.

He said also the growing globalization and the development of technologies mean that ideas, information and products are spreading all over the world. And although this, as Mansour noted, on the one hand, is advantageous and expedient, on the other hand, it creates new challenges, ranging from illegal downloads of files to falsified goods. In the light of the above, the Vice-Ambassador stressed the importance of creating mechanisms for the protection of intellectual property.

The World Intellectual Property Day has been celebrated annually on April 26 since 2001. The event was established by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2000 to "raise awareness of how patents, copyright, trademarks and designs impact on daily life" and "to celebrate creativity, and the contribution made by creators and innovators to the development of societies across the globe".

The 26 of April was chosen as the date for World Intellectual Property Day because it coincides with the date on which the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization entered into force in 1970.

news.amSons of former Armenia finance minister sold their house in LA for $18.8 mln26.04.2017 The two sons of the former Armenian finance minister, Gagik Khachatryan, have sold their home in a prestigious district of Los Angeles for $18.8 million, Los Angeles Business Journal reports.

According to the documents, the 6,055-square-foot property located in Holmby Hills was owned by Gurgen and Artyom Khachatryan. The brothers bought the house for $11 million in 2010.

The six-bedroom, five-bathroom estate, which also includes a pool and tennis court, first hit the market in June 2016 for $35 million.

It is also noted that the house is not far from the famous Playboy Mansion.

THE IMMORALITY OF A NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST: THERESA MAY'S EVIL INTENTION------------------------------------------------------------You discover someone intends, makes plans and missiles to blow up London. With all its inhabitants. Civilians, women, children, the lot. Aghast, you’d rush to tell the police, wouldn’t you? But what if the cops were part of the plot? What if they assisted and protected the mega villain?

That is what PM Theresa May intends to do. I kid you not. Her Defence Secretary, the big idiot with the big booming voice Michael Fallon, has just boasted about that. May is prepared to unleash Britain’s nuclear weapons – even as a first, pre-emptive strike. And 10 Downing St has not disagreed.

How many nuclear weapons are there worldwide? Some say 23.000 but I cull other figures from the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Little Britain appears to have 225 nuclear warheads. Piffling compared with America’s 4760 and Russia’s 4.300. Numbers apart, what effects would a nuclear strike have on your home town? Like London? Nukemap, a lovely online app, tells you. Fireball, radiation, air blast, thermal effects like darkness, famines – it’s all there. As to the human casualties…the sky – or hell – is the limit. Low-yield, 13 kilotons atomic bombs the US dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused 100.000 dead on the day and 100.000 more died of radioactive poisoning the next four months. Present-day, multi-megaton nuclear warheads would murder millions. Makes ISIS horrors look like a Vicarage tea party.

Nukemap astutely imagines a Russian Tsar Bomba H-Bomb as the aggressor. Russophobia rules OK, eh? Naturally, British warheads would rain not on Brighton or Birmingham but on Russian cities like St Petersburg or Moscow. It would be no less than genocide.

But it’s all about deterrence, claim sinister apologists for mass murder like Fallon. (He would, wouldn’t he?) To dissuade Russians from nuking us first. The threat of nuclear holocaust warns the enemy that the costs of attack would exceed the gains. Not a new concept. Powerful Armies have always had a deterrent function. The immense power of WMD just makes the bloody thing more exciting, I guess. Still, to really dissuade you must threaten. And for the extermination threat to be effective you must mean it. It's no bluff. You must really intend to perpetrate your nuclear holocaust on the enemy – civilians included.

The morality – immorality, actually – of nuclear deterrence was hot stuff back in the day of the old, bad Soviet Union. Communism now down the drain, the West has created a new bogey. Putin’s Russia. Never mind that Vladimir plugs no ideology to conquer the world. Western warmongering mentality is primitive. They have fabricated an ogre and they love it!

What’s morally wrong with planning nuclear genocide on the enemy? The hallowed Christian doctrine of the Just War, formulated by theologians and Saints, makes clear. Three key criteria must obtain for a war to be justified. Right Authority, Right Cause and Right Intention. Technically, the UN Security Council has such authority. Right Cause? As the UN Charters declares, only self-defence can justify military action. Of course, those two pious clauses are routinely violated by powers like the US, Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia, though they pretend otherwise. (Where was self-defence in Iraq or Libya or Bahrain or Yemen? Or even Afghanistan?) Right Intention is the one left.

Right Intention is essential in Christian ethics. It isn’t a matter of being inwardly pure, like a saint or a martyr. Intention must not tend to do evil, that’s fundamental. And it excludes revenge. (If it is true that George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq because Saddam Hussein allegedly tried ‘to kill my dad’, it would exemplify that.) But what is evil, when May and her stooge Fallon affirm they merely wish to deter an enemy attack? You can discern it by considering other vital Just War principles. Non-combatant immunity and proportionality. The first says that innocent civilians should be immune from direct attack. The second rests on a calculation that the good should outweigh the evil in the total balance of war.

It is clear that firing warhead-armed nuclear missiles on enemy cities would result on the direct annihilation of their civilian populations. That flagrantly contradicts the criterion of civilian immunity. It spells out an objectively evil intention – indeed, a satanic will – diametrically opposed to the will to do good which is incumbent on politicians who say they follow Jesus Christ.

Theresa May is an Anglican Vicar’s daughter. She occasionally mumbles she is a Christian. She even jokes she gave up crisps for Lent. (Her idea of self-denial…) Yet she is presiding over a nuclear strategy that aims at mass murder. Why? Sounds mad. Rumour has it, she is ill. Mentally? That would excuse here. If not, she sure is morally sick. I mean, in the sense of being criminally so. In that case, what is to be done to stop her? And her shabby Tory gang, like buffoon Boris?

A citizen’s arrest would be a possibility. Mass murder is certainly an indictable offense in international law and if you apprehended Unholy Theresa and her imbecilic Fallon you’d be acting legally. Problem is, British Bobbies would arrest you! What’s left? A moral legal entity like the Russell Tribunal? A People’s Court? A religious body? As Theresa is an Anglican, the quaint Court of Arches at Lambeth? But all such noble institutions have no teeth. Yet, the matter is urgent, lethally so. The threat of a nuclear holocaust is too awesome to be ignored. What is to be done?

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday again expressed hiscondolences to the descendants of Armenians killed in the OttomanEmpire a century ago.

Erdogan blamed their deaths on "the harsh conditions of the FirstWorld War," rather than a deliberate government policy ofextermination, in a statement issued on the 102nd anniversary of thestart of the 1915 mass killings and deportations of Armenians.

"This year, I once again pay our respects to the Ottoman Armenians wholost their lives under the harsh conditions of the First World War andconvey my condolences to their descendants," said the statement readout during a memorial service held at an Armenian cathedral inIstanbul.

"Turks and Armenians, as two ancient nations of this region, haveshared a common history and culture in this part of the world, wherethey lived side by side for a thousand years," it said, adding thatthey should "heal the wounds of the past."

Erdogan has issued similar statements in recent years. Just like itspredecessors, his government vehemently denies that the deaths of anestimated 1.5 million Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empireconstituted genocide. It has strongly condemned foreign governmentsand parliaments for recognizing the Armenian genocide.

In an April 2015 speech, Erdogan sought to justify the massdeportations of Armenian civilians ordered by the Ottoman regime of"the Young Turks" in 1915. He said the "the relocation of the Armenianpopulation in Anatolia to southern lands" was a legitimate response toviolence by "Armenian gangs provoked by various powers."

The Turkish leader referred to the Syrian desert where hundreds ofthousands of Armenians -- mostly women, children and elderly people --were killed or starved to death. Scores of others died on their way tothe Deir ez-Zor camps.

Accordingly, Erdogan stuck to the long-standing official Turkish linethat Ottoman Armenians died in smaller numbers and as a result ofcivil strife. Any claim to the contrary is a "malevolent" attack onTurkey, he declared at the time.

In his latest statement, Erdogan acknowledged Armenians' "greatcontributions" to the Ottoman Empire and modern-day Turkey. He alsosaid the Turkish government wants to "preserve the memory of theOttoman Armenians and the Armenian cultural heritage in the future."

Erdogan expressed first-ever official Turkish condolences to theArmenians in April 2014. The move, which heralded a softening ofAnkara's traditional policy of aggressive genocide denial, wasdismissed by Armenia as disingenuous. Yerevan insists that only anexplicit Turkish recognition of the genocide can pave the way forTurkish-Armenian reconciliation.

RFE/RL Report

Turkey Unhappy With Trump's Armenian Genocide StatementApril 25, 2017

Turkey has strongly criticized U.S. President Donald Trump forofficially acknowledging that 1.5 million Armenians were deported andkilled by the Ottoman Turks during the First World War.

Just like his predecessors, Trump stopped stop short of describing themass killings as genocide in a statement issued on Monday. He spokeinstead of "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century."

"Beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians were deported,massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of theOttoman Empire," added his statement.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry denounced the statement, saying that itcontains "misinformation and false definitions" provided by "someArmenian circles in the U.S."

"We expect from the new U.S. Administration not to accredit theone-sided historical narrative of these circles which are known fortheir tendency to violence and hate speech and to adopt an approachwhich will take into consideration the sufferings of all sides," saida ministry spokesman.

The leading Armenian-American advocacy groups were just as critical ofTrump's statement issued on the 102nd anniversary of the start of theArmenian genocide. They denounced his apparent desire not to angerTurkey, a longtime U.S. ally, with an explicit recognition of thegenocide.

Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush used similarlanguage in their April 24 statements. The White House presssecretary, Sean Spicer, pointed to this fact when he commented onTrump's failure to use the word "genocide."

"I think if you look back to the language that President Obama,President Bush have used, the language the President used isconsistent with all of that," Spicer told reporters in Washington.

Earlier on Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan againoffered his condolences to the descendants of Armenians killed in theOttoman Empire. But he blamed their deaths on "the harsh conditions ofthe First World War," rather than a deliberate government policy ofextermination.

The current and former Turkish governments have claimed that OttomanArmenians died in smaller numbers and as a result of civilstrife. They have condemned the 26 nations -- including France,Germany, Italy and Russia -- for officially recognizing the masskillings as genocide to date.

Most Western historians specializing in research of crimes againsthumanity dismiss the official Turkish position. "The historical recordon the Armenian Genocide is unambiguous and documented by overwhelmingevidence," the International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS)said in 2007.

"It has been reported in the press that during the ceremony of theanniversary of 1915 events, a Turkish flag was burned in the capitalof Armenia, Yerevan, on 24 April 2017," the statement released by theministry said.

Saying that a flag symbolizes "all the fundamental values, beliefs andthe freedom of a nation," the ministry added, "The attack against ourflag which is considered to be synonymous with the existence of theTurkish nation have given rise to strong resentment and reaction amongour people."

"In respect of the importance attributed by the Turkish nation tothese values and to the Turkish flag, we strongly condemn this actionand its perpetrators," the statement concluded.

Former President Barack Obama's ambassador to the United Nations apologized Monday for the Obama administration not recognizing the century-old massacre of more than a million Armenians as genocide.

Samantha Power issued the apology via Twitter on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, which commemorates the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915 and 1916.

According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum , as many as 1.2 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman authorities over those two years.

Back in 2008, then-candidate Obama promised that if he were to become president, he and his administration would officially recognize the killings as genocide.

"I also share with Armenian Americans–so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors–a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history," a 2008 Obama campaign statement said.

Obama failed to follow through on his promise year after year of his presidency.

The United States has not recognized the mass killings largely because doing so would anger Turkey, a longtime U.S. ally and NATO member.

President Donald Trump has followed in his predecessors' footsteps. In a statement released by the White House on Monday to recognize Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day, the Trump administration did not use the word "genocide."

"Beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire," Trump said in the statement. "I join the Armenian community in America and around the world in mourning the loss of innocent lives and the suffering endured by so many."

Trump referred to the massacre of Armenians as "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century.

news.amHollande: France should use every opportunity to tell Turkey that this was Genocide24.04.2017 We should not stand back from the path of the Armenian Genocide denial criminalization, French President François Hollande stated on Monday, speaking at the event commemorating the 102 nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide organized by the Coordination Council of Armenian Organizations in France (CCAF) in Paris.

“It was my duty to come here and honor the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims. We should always be mobilized, since the struggle for the memory of the tragedy is a struggle,” Hollande noted.

“The struggle is for denying any distortion of the historical truth. France stands by the Armenian people, which I proved by my visit to Armenia. Only the historical truth can unite. I should say that we should not stand back from the path of the Armenian Genocide denial criminalization. Denial is not an opinion but a denial of the truth,” he added.

In his words, France should use every opportunity to tell Turkey that this was a Genocide and it should be recognized. Hollande also informed that an archive on the Armenian Genocide will be established. “As a result of various human rights violations in the world today, April 24 reminds us that we should act. Know that there is an indestructible brotherly tie between the Armenians and French.”

The ceremony in commemoration of the 102 nd anniversary of the Armenian Genocide is held near the statue of Komitas at Canada Square.

legislature to present information on consequences of 1915 deportation24.04.2017 Garo Paylan, Istanbul Armenian MP of the opposition pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) of Turkey, submitted a written petition to the chairmanship of the Turkish parliament regarding Armenian Genocide.

In the petition, Paylan demanded that the legislature present information on the consequences of the state decision on deporting Armenians on May 27, 1915, according to Agos Armenian bilingual weekly of Istanbul.

He noted that Armenians, Greeks, Yazidis, and Assyrians were massacred as a result of the implementation of this decision.

“The consequences of this decision have not yet been studied for 102 years on,” noted the Armenian member of the Turkish parliament. “With the implementation of this decision, we lost a large number of human lives, and thousands of private and cultural property belonging to Armenians was embezzled by the state, or other people.”

lragir.am18 Survivors of Genocide Live in Armenia24 April 2017, 22:24 Ahead of the memorial day of the Armenian Genocide the world focused on The Promise, a historical drama that has successfully overcome the Turkish campaign in the world and in Armenia.

It is hard to count how many films have been made since the calamity that took place a century ago but the fact is that even 100 years will not prevent the descendants of the Genocide survivors and people living in different parts of the world irrespective of their age and ethnicity, political views from condemning the greatest crime against humanity committed at the beginning of the 20 th century. It’s hard to imagine that people who are over a century old are living beside us, in our country maybe also in our town. An event in their life is not only clearly related to the year 1915 but also reflects the reality that took place in their lives. The witnesses-survivors of the genocide are people who were displaced from their places of birth, who lost their families and friends, homes and gardens, property, faced cruelty when young, whose destinies were changed.

Each of them has a story and memory that cannot be erased every bit of which has been pictured in different movies, including The Promise.

As of April 2017, in Armenia there live 18 people who survived the Armenian Genocide, including 4 men. The number of witness-survivors is getting fewer every year. In 2014 they were 39, including 25 women and 14 men. According to the State Social Security Service, in April 2016 there were 21 survivors of the genocide, including 4 men.

The people who were born in the former Ottoman empire before 31 December 1915 receive an allowance in the amount of 50% of their pension and an allowance of 100,000 drams.

Ahead of the 100 th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide Armenpress implemented the Witness project which published the story of 32 survivors of the Genocide in three languages for two years. The project was translated and published in other media too.

Sirvard Atajyan, the 105-year-old lady from Musaler, cannot walk to the memorial, her health is not good. The survivor of the genocide gives all her hopes and her human warmth to her great grandchild. Mike who does not hide her special love and care for her great grandmother will walk to the Genocide memorial with his parents.

[a continuing source of false analysis leading to denialism: see how

they argue their case for what they call Armenian allegations while

there are huge number of books, article and academic papers fromauthors from all over the world. The experts they mention are Turks

or in the pay of Turks].

AzerNews, AzerbaijanApril 24 2017

"Armenian genocide: real history or historical lie" conference kicks off in Baku24 April 2017 1By Rashid Shirinov A scientific and practical conference "Armenian genocide: real history or historical lie" kicked off in Baku on April 24.

Representatives of various state structures, MPs and foreign participants attended the conference organized by the State Commission on Prisoners of War, Hostages and Missing Persons.

In his remarks at the event, Secretary of the State Commission on Ismayil Akhundov highlighted the goal of the conference and the issues to be discussed at the event.

Chairman of Turkey's Talat Pasa Committee Ali Erdinc, addressing the event, delivered a lecture on "What actually happened on April 24, 1915" Response to Armenian lies, and the importance of Azerbaijan-Turkey relations in this regard".

He said that the committee aims to reveal the groundless Armenian claims and increase the world community`s awareness of realities in order to ensure territorial integrity and national security of Turkey and Azerbaijan.

“We must fight against Armenian lies, hindering the development of Turkey and Azerbaijan, otherwise it will increase,” he said.

Erdinc reminded that during 1915-1918 Armenians killed tens of thousands of innocent people in Van, Istanbul, Erzurum and other cities of Turkey, as well as in Baku and other Azerbaijani territories.

“We need to inform the world community about these atrocities of the Armenians and not give them the opportunity to deceive the world community by hiding their criminal acts,” he noted.

The Armenians committed genocide of the Azerbaijanis in the beginning of the 20th century. This genocide was carried out with extreme violence in Baku, Shamakhi and Guba counties, as well as in Karabakh, Zangezur, Nakhchivan, Lankaran and other regions of Azerbaijan. Armenians killed many civilians in these areas, burned and razed to the ground villages and destroyed Azerbaijani monuments of national culture.

Azerbaijani MP Isa Habibbayli, in turn, noted that Azerbaijan has always fought and continues to fight against Armenian lies.

“The basis of work in this direction was laid by national leader Heydar Aliyev, and today it is continued by President Ilham Aliyev,” he said.

Habibbayli noted that today Armenians continue to spread lies and it is necessary to strengthen work on the fight against Armenian lies.

The Armenians falsify history and include a part of Anatolia and other territories in the map of ‘Great Armenia’. “Therefore, we, Azerbaijani and Turkish scientists, should jointly fight against falsifications of the Armenians,” the MP said.

Former Ombudsman of Moldova Aurelia Grigoriu, in turn, noted that Armenia is a mono-ethnic state and it does not want to see representatives of other nations in the country.

“Therefore, the topic discussed today is important not only for Azerbaijan, Turkey and the Turkic peoples, but is also relevant for all peoples of the world. Armenians actively use foreign media for spreading false propaganda,” she said.

Head of Department of the Presidential Library, PhD in History Nazim Mustafa, senior research fellow of the Center for Strategic Studies Araz Gurbanov, Professor of the Institute of Oriental Studies, PhD in History Solmaz Rustamova-Tohidi and others also addressed the conference.

Many historians, scholars, experts announced that the hundred-year-old lie, the so-called ‘Armenian genocide’ contradicts historical facts. Ever since Armenia came out shouting ‘genocide’,no real investigation into such allegations has ever been carried out although Turkey proposed Armenia to open its military archives and investigate the issue. Moreover, there have been many accounts which actually disproof Armenia' stance.